Now, the saga has become even more bizarre after rumours have emerged that Nintendo are planning on releasing a SNES classic this Christmas. The website Eurogamer claims that this is the reason why the NES mini had to be discontinued, as their production plants were already scheduled to start building the SNES mini in time for Christmas. Here’s what they had to say:

The SNES mini (or, to continue Nintendo’s official branding, likely the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System) is currently scheduled to launch in time for Christmas this year. Development of the device is already under way, our sources have indicated.

Nintendo’s plans for SNES mini are also a major reason why last year’s NES mini did not see a reprieve from discontinuation, Eurogamer understands, despite the latter’s continued popularity and sell-out status.

From the company’s perspective, the microconsole was planned as a cool novelty item perfect for Christmas 2016, and the numbers in which it was manufactured and shipped were expected to be enough to suit this goal.

But NES mini ended up breaking out to become more popular than anticipated and quickly sold out, leading to a bustling resale market on eBay. NES mini shipments continued into the early part of this year, but its production run could not be extended further – as SNES mini was slated for production instead.

Well, that certainly makes a bit more sense now doesn’t it? And to be fair, the quality of the games on the SNES are vastly superior to those on the NES so if we have to wait another year to play them – and actually be able to get our hands on one of the consoles – then I’m OK with it. Just thinking about it off the top of my head, we could enjoy stuff like Super Metroid, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, StarFox, Donkey Kong Country, Zelda: A Link To The Past, Street Fighter II, Probotector III, Yoshi’s Island, Super Castlevania IV, F-Zero and Super Metroid at the push of a button and that sounds pretty good to me.